MORE AIRPLANE PORN

It appears even Vladimir Putin is taking a break over Easter weekend, so the blog will too. Here are some more airplane photos from over the years. These are all P-51 Mustangs.

I didn’t take this first photo, my friend Lani Muche did - because I am the photographer in the jumpseat of the P-51 taking photos. The P-51D is “Spam Can,” owned by Planes of Fame Air Museum out in Chino, California. It’s the oldest continuously-licensed warbird in America, ever since April 1957 when Southern California aviation legend the late Rev. B.C. Reed flew it from Fort Rucker, Alabama, after it had been retired by the U.S. Army as a chase plane for experimental helicopters. Over the years, she’s appeared in different markings, commemorative of various P-51 units from World War II.

The Japanese Zero (the airplane next-closest) is the only fully-original Zero in the world, with a Sakae engine. It was one of 50 captured on Saipan in 1944 and returned to the U.S. Charles Lindbergh flew it at the Fighter Conference in October 1944 - his signature is in the logbook.By the time Ed Maloney (another one of the legendary guys I’ve been privileged to be friends with) found it in 1955, it was an “instructional airframe” at the Glendale Grand Central Airport Mechanic’s school, and was about to be tossed since the airfield was closing to be turned into that section of Interstate 5 that runs through east Los Angeles by Griffith Park. It was 20 years before the museum restored it to flight, and it’s been flown 4-5 hours a year since 1978. They have to be very careful, since there are no spares available.

The P-40N was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II for the air defense of Vancouver Island, and shot down one of the Japanese fire balloons that were set adrift in the jet stream to fall over the forests of the Pacific Northwest in hopes of starting an inferno. Which the history books will tell you didn’t happen.

This flight happened back in 1997.

This next one also happened in the summer of 1997. The pilot in back is well-known warbird restorer Matt Jackson, and the guy in front (now gone) was the owner; he’d been a World War II B-17 pilot and always wanted to fly a Mustang, so when he retired rich and successful, he bought this one and put it in the markings of the 325th Fighter Group, “The Checkertail Clan” who had escorted his squadron in the war.

We had just done a run up the coast over Malibu (the hill over Zuma Beach is top center) then turned up Kanan Dume Road to go back to Van Nuys, and as we made the turn, the polished aluminum caught the late afternoon sun and she just glowed.

This P-51D belongs to my friend Dan Martin, who’s had it since he brought it back from Central America in 1974. I gave him the material back then for the markings, which are for the Mustang flown in 1945 by Pierce McKennon of the 4th Fighter Group, the former Eagle Squadrons - the “Yanks in the RAF.” Mac was a concert pianist who really loved to boogie woogie. At night in the O Club at Debden after a mission, he would play “Tiger Rag” with a pint of bitters clenched in his teeth and not spill a drop - or miss a note.

“Susie” is here being flown by the luckiest guy in the universe. Steve Hinton, the world’s foremost warbird pilot. He met his destiny the first day of first grade when he ended up in a class with Ed Maloney’s son, Jim, “who could draw airplanes much better than I could.” Steve grew up in the museum as one of the “Chino Kids” as they’re known in the warbird movement. He soloed in a P-51 on his 18th birthday. In the past 40 years, he’s been the pilot of choice for every warbird on the planet that’s been restored to flight. He has over 100 different warbirds in his logbook, you’ve seen him in any commercial you’ve ever seen with a strange airplane in it, since he’s the guy flying it.

And since I mentioned Steve, I’ll end with this photo I took back in 2017 of Steve with my nephew, Nathan Elster, who plans to go to Cal Tech and design the rocket that will take men to Mars. I bet he will, too! That year, he met Buzz Aldrin and engaged him in a 30 minute conversation that had everyone else who wanted to meet the second man to walk on the moon very jealous.